Defra's Alison Pritchard joins GDS as chief operating officer

(Pritchard's change of job will see her move from Westminster to Whitechapel, where GDS is based Credit: GDS

Alison Pritchard has joined the Government Digital Service as its new chief operating officer.

Pritchard joins GDS from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where she has served as director of transformational change since April 2016. Prior to that, she has worked for a variety of Whitehall departments during a 30-year civil service career that has taken in stints at the Ministry of Defence, the Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office, and the then Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

She replaces former GDS operations chief Alex Holmes, who joined DCMS in April as deputy director of cyber security.

Pritchard announced her arrival at GDS on Twitter (see below), where she was congratulated by a variety of people, including a warm welcome from the organisation’s director general, Kevin Cunnington, who said "great to have you on the team".

Delighted to join @GDSteam as the new Chief Operating Officer. Awesome people doing awesome things with digital & data in Government